Separator.



W. N. BRITTON.

SEPARATOR.

APPLICATION FILED APR. 1, 1915.

1,1 5 l 2%3, Patented Aug. 24, 1915.

3 SHEETS-SHEET I.

INVENTOH '4 A TTOH/VEY W. N. BRITTON.

SEPARATOR.

APPLICATION FILED APR. 1. I915.

Patented Aug. 24, 1915.

3 SHEETSSHEET 2.

WILLIS N. BRITTON, OF ROCHESTER, NEW YORK.

SEPARATOR.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Aug. 241., 11915.

Application filed April 1, 1915. Serial No. 18,484.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, WILLIS N. BRITTON, of Rochester, in the county of Monroe and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Separators, which improvement is fully set forth in the following specification and shown in the accompanying drawings.

The present invention relates to separators and more particularly to that type designed for separating fruit, vegetables and other articles into different grades or sizes, an object of this invention being to provide a simple and inexpensive construction in which the articles are subject to a minimum amount of agitation so that the liability of injury by bruising is materially reduced.

To this and other ends, the invention consists in certain parts and combinations of parts all of which will be hereinafter described, the novel features being pointed out in the appended claims.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a plan view of the separator partially broken away at its center to show the intake or receiving end and the discharge end of the machine; Fig. 2 is a side view of the machine; Fig. 3 is a diagrammatical view of the endless members and their supporting drums; and Fig. 4:

is a vertical section through the receiving end of the machine.

According to the illustrated embodiment, there is provided a frame formed in any suitable manner and, in this instance, comprising a pair of angle bars 1 supported preferably in a single plane by uprights 2 near the opposite ends thereof, said uprights being connected below the bars 1 by angle bars 3 and being braced by braces 4 which connect with the uprights 2 and the angle bars 3. At one end, the angle bars 1 are deflected downwardly at 5 to connect with the angle bars 3 and to these deflected portions 5, an inclined hopper or chute 6 is secured, the latter being suitably braced at 7. Removably supported on the angle bars 1 by means of hooks 8 are receptacles 9 formed preferably of fabric and each having an opening 10 at one side of the machine and being reinforced along its upper edge by a frame 11. These receptacles receive the different grades of articles from the separating means, the efiective portion of which travels above the receptacle.

On the uprights 2, the drums 12 and 13 are mounted to turn, and, arranged about the two drums to travel over and under the receptacles 9, there is an endless separating member which is preferably formed with substantially square openings, this being effected in this instance, by the provision of a plurality of transverse members 14 each having a zigzag form and connected to its proximate members so that substantially square openings are formed between the members. In this instance, the connections are in the form of links 15 between the nearest portions of proximate members, thus permitting the separating element to bend freely about the drums l2 and 13.

In order to vary the effective sizes of the openings in this endless separating member so that only the small fruit or articles may pass through the separating member into the first compartment 9 at the receiving or intake end of the machine while articles of gradually larger sizes are deposited into the successive compartments, there is provided a means which travels with the endless separating member and restricts the size of the openings at the intake end of the machine, gradually reducing such restrictions as the openings move toward the discharge end so that, at the discharge end, the openings in the endless separating member finally have nothing to restrict the passage of articles therethrough. In this instance, this restricting means is also in the form of an endless belt which is preferably constructed like the first named belt with the exception that the links 15 which connect the transverse members 14 are slightly longer than the links 15, thus making the sizes of the openings in the second member larger than those of the first endless member, and this difference in size is such that the second endless member has two transverse strips fewer than the first endless member. Both endless members pass around the same drums and the second one lies in direct contact with the first one, the parts being so proportioned that the natural creepage can be utilized to cause each row of openings in the lower belt to be restricted by the upper belt to one-half of their normal sizes at the intake end of the machine, and, as the two belts or members move toward the discharge end of the machine, the openings of the first belt will have their restrictions gradually reduced, until, at the. discharge end of the machine, the restrictions are entirely removed.

' While the invention has been 'embodied in a structure in which two endless belts or members are arranged one about the other and the outer one slips or creeps on the in- .ner one, it is apparent that the invention is not limited to this arrangement, as various equivalent arrangements immediately suggest'themselves for accomplishing thissame result. Q

With the purpose in view of insuring that this creeping will be uniform, the roller 13 may be provided with lugs 16 arranged in pairs about the same and adapted to" receive both of the endless members between them while they are in registering position.

In order to feed the fruit or articles from the hopper 6 to the separating belts or members, the drum 12 may be provided with ,in'size as the two belts or members move toward the discharge end of the machine. Those openings, formed by the two members and decreasing in size as the members move toward the discharge end of'the machine,

receive the projections 17 and, in this way,

prevent the entrance of fruit or articles into.

such openings that decrease in size, for it will be apparent that, should fruit or other articles to be delivered into all of the openings, those articles which enter the ones which decrease in size would be cut or injured. In this instance, three projections enter each opening of the inner belt and are disposed in three of the corners of such opening, and each of these three projections enters a difierent opening in the outer belt or member. By this arrangement, there is provided about the drum a number of annular series pockets which occur directly beneath those conjoint openings in the two belts or members that expander in crease in size as the belts or members move toward the discharge end of the machine.

In order that the fruit or articles will be delivered to the drum in line with the annular series of pockets 18, the bottom of the hopper 6 is formed-with a number of ribs 19 which provide ways between them through which the apples or articles are caused to pass, one at a time, toward the drum in line with the annular series of pockets 18. The operation of the invention will be understood from the foregoing description but it may be summarized as follows: Apples are delivered in bulk to the hopper 6 in which they roll by gravity toopening into one of -the receptacles 9 when the size of the opening equals the greatest diameter of the article, the opening gradually increasing in size as it moves toward the discharge end of the machine and at all times maintaining a square. shape.

This construction enables the machine to grade articles with very small distinction between'the grades, the diiferent grades being obtained by varying the number of receptacles into which the articles are dropped. These receptacles are removably supported on the frame and. are so constructed-that they do not cause injury to the articles. As the openings gradually increase in size, and not suddenly, there is little orno danger of the articles being injured while upon the two endless separating members. "These belts or members are guided'at' their side edges on the angle bars 1 and, in this way, they are prevented from sagging between the drums 12 and 13. While, in the construction shown, the belts or endless members are novel, it is to be understood that I am not limited to this construction, nor am I tobe limited to'efiecting the relative movement between the" members by the natural creepage. It is also apparant that the pocketed drum, about which the two belts pass, is not limited to being used with two beltsbut may be used with any endless separating element having openings from some of which it is desirable to'exclude articles.

What I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A separator comprising alongitudinally movable member having openings therein and a second relatively longitudinally movable member'arranged to cooperate with the first named member to vary the effective sizes of said openings in the line of movement thereof.

eh I

2. A separator comprising two endless I through openings of the other at the intake of the machine and will gradually increase the size of effective portions of the openings as dthe openings move away from the intake en 4. A separator comprising two endless members, one arranged about the other, the outer member having larger openings than the inner member and being arranged to creep on the other at such a speed that the openings in the inner member are restricted by the outer member at the receiving end of the machine and are gradually increased in effective size as the members move away from the receiving end.

5. In a separator, two endless members, one arranged about the other to creep on the latter and each comprising transverse pieces of zigzag form, and links connectingv said pieces, the links of the outer endless member being larger than those of the inner endless member.

6. In a separator, two endless members each provided with square openings, and means for operating said members so that the openings on the two members combine to provide small effective separating openings of square form at the receiving end of the machine and gradually increasing in size as the endless members move away from the receiving end.

7. In combination in a separating machine, two endless members provided with openings, one of which moves to vary the effective size of openings in the other, and a drum at the receiving end of the machine, having projections that enter some openings in both members to prevent the location of the articles therein.

8. A separator comprising an endless separating means provided with separating openings, a hopper and a rotary drum about which the separating means passes having a portion exposed to the contents of the hopper, said drum having projections thereon arranged to prevent articles from the hopper entering certain of said separating openmgs.

9. A separator comprising an endless separating means having openings therein, a hopper, and a rotary drum about which said endless separating means passes, said drum being provided with pockets coinciding with some of the openings in the separating means to permit articles to enter said openings, other portions on the drum excluding articles from other of said openings.

WILLIS N. BRITTON. 

